


Home Movies

by tablelamp



Category: The Holiday (2006)
Genre: F/M, Film Archives, Historical Detective Work, Hollywood, Movie Night, The past is never past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:47:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22202065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tablelamp/pseuds/tablelamp
Summary: Arthur has a missing movie from his past.  Iris and Miles want to find it.
Relationships: Arthur Abbot & Miles Dumont & Iris Simpkins, Arthur Abbot/Marion Abbot, Miles Dumont/Iris Simpkins
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Home Movies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lmizutani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lmizutani/gifts).



Once a week, Miles, Iris, and Arthur got together for Movie Night, taking turns choosing what to watch. Iris had noticed that Miles usually chose films with music he loved and Arthur chose films made by people he'd known. She wondered if there was a theme to the films she chose, but she couldn't think of one, other than that they tended to end happily.

She suggested to Arthur one night, after watching _Singin' in the Rain_ , that they should watch one of the films he'd written, but Arthur pulled an embarrassed face and waved his hands in an emphatic 'no'.

"Don't do that," he said.

"Why not?" Iris asked. "When else could we watch one of these films with the person who wrote it?"

Miles jumped in. "If you didn't want us to listen to the dialogue, you could always tell us stories about when it was made. You know, the inside scoop. The dish."

Arthur shook his head. "You're very kind to humor an old man, but when I watch my films, all I can see is how I'd do things differently if I wrote them now."

Sometimes Iris felt that way about her columns, but it was still disappointing. "You really don't want to?"

"I'll pass," Arthur said. "But thanks for asking. It's good for the ego to get asked every once in a while. Now, there is a movie--well, there was. It doesn't exist anymore, except in my memory."

Ever the journalist, Iris couldn't resist a dangled hint. "What do you mean?"

Arthur looked at Iris and smiled. "You've heard of short subjects? Back when I was getting started, there was the longer picture, but you'd usually see something shorter before that--newsreels, comedy shorts, cartoons. Well, there was this comedienne named Patsy Kelly who did shorts for Hal Roach, and Roach was trying her with different people. Marion was working on the lot as a script girl, and Hal Roach saw her and wanted to try her with Patsy Kelly."

"Wait," Miles said, sharing a surprised look with Iris. "You never told us your wife made a movie."

"Only one," Arthur said. "She told me she didn't like acting, and I guess she didn't, because she never did it again." He chuckled. "We'd just started seeing each other, and I managed to find out her movie was playing before a Laurel and Hardy picture. I saw it as many times as I could."

"Surely it must've been on television at some point," Iris said. "On one of those classic movie channels?"

"Yeah, or the Late Late Show?" Miles said.

Arthur shook his head. "I tried for years to track it down. Even asked Roddy McDowall if he had a copy--he collected films, you know. No luck." He gave Iris a wry look. "They didn't save the original cut of _The Magnificent Ambersons_ , and that was Orson Welles. Do you really think they'd save a two-reeler all this time? Anyway, it doesn't matter. I saw it then and I'll always remember it." He was silent for a moment. Iris wished, as she often wished, that Marion were still alive. Arthur loved her and missed her so much it made Iris's heart ache.

"Do you know what Marion and I said to each other the first time we met?" Arthur asked, the light of the past in his eyes.

Iris smiled. "What?"

"She was standing in front of the Trocadero in this beautiful satin dress. And I walked up to her and said, 'That's a beautiful dress.' And she said, 'Thanks. I borrowed it from the backlot. Don't tell anyone.'" His eyes crinkled in a smile. "Gumption. Always."

***

Iris was lying on her side with her eyes closed, trying to sleep, when Miles spoke. "You're thinking about it too, aren't you?"

Iris didn't need to ask what he meant, and she rolled onto her back with a sigh. "I am. It doesn't seem fair that something so precious could be lost." She looked at Miles. "Do you think it is?"

"Well, Arthur couldn't find it," Miles said.

"No, but they're discovering lost films all the time. They've found any number of missing _Doctor Who_ episodes. And the actress in the film with Marion, Patsy Kelly, she was well-known. I'm sure Arthur looked very hard for it, but I just think...I think we should look for it too." Iris wondered what Miles would say to that.

"Do I get an Indiana Jones hat?" Miles asked. "I don't know how dangerous it is looking for something like this. If we have to run away from boulders or get tied up with Sean Connery, I'm gonna need an Indiana Jones hat."

Iris laughed, leaning over to kiss him. "I'm sure we can arrange one for you."

"Even if you can't, I'm in anyway," he said, giving her a smile that made her toes tingle. "You knew I would be."

"You do like an adventure," Iris agreed.

"Yeah," Miles said. "Plus, it's for Arthur."

Iris nodded. "I want to find her for him. Don't you?"

"Yeah," Miles said. "I do."

***

Before they could start searching for the film, they had to compile a list of places to look. Miles had some initial ideas, since he worked in film, and both he and Iris did some online investigating. They started with high hopes and the promise never to breathe a word of their shared task to Arthur unless they found the film.

But as time wore on, Iris began to wonder if Arthur was right and Marion's movie didn't exist anymore. They didn't have a copy at the Library of Congress; they didn't have a copy at UCLA. She even checked the Paley Center, though they housed mostly radio and television programmes. As she said to Miles one day, "I don't want to miss it because I wasn't thinking creatively enough."

"Any luck?" Miles asked when Iris arrived home from her Paley search.

"None," Iris said. "They contacted their New York location, but they haven't got it either. Though I've told enough of the story to the research manager at the Paley Center that she promises to help if she can."

Miles nodded. "I was on the phone earlier with an archivist from USC to see if their Hal Roach collection had anything. They've got some of his TV stuff but not what we're looking for."

Iris sighed, plopping into her chair. "I hate to say it, but I'm running out of ideas."

"You might have some more tomorrow," Miles said. "Or if you wait a couple of days, maybe some genius idea will pop into your head at just the right moment."

Iris smiled at him. "You've seen too many movies."

"The hazards of the job," Miles said. He took Iris's hand. "If it's there, we'll find it. In the meantime, I have an outstanding dinner planned. Wait till you see what it is."

Iris followed Miles to the kitchen. If 'gumption' was the word Arthur always used to describe Marion, 'irrepressible' was the word Iris would use to describe Miles. It seemed nothing could keep him down very long, and Iris always marveled at that.

A few days later, the phone at the house rang. Iris and Miles were both at work, him on a score for the new Wayne Wang film, and her on her latest column. Iris reached for the phone, but the lack of a second ring told her that Miles had already got it, so she went back to typing.

Miles appeared at the doorway a few moments later, holding the receiver, a boyish grin on his face.

"It's our friends at the Library of Congress," he said. "You're gonna love this."

***

Iris was so excited about the next movie night that she could barely keep herself from scheduling it earlier.

"I still don't know what we're watching tonight," Arthur said as he sat down. "What's all the mystery?"

"You'll see," Iris said, exchanging a triumphant glance with Miles, who couldn't stop smiling either.

Arthur didn't recognize the film right away. As the title _On Their Way_ came onscreen, he frowned at it, squinting as though seeing it better would restore his memory. But when he saw Marion's name in the credits, he pressed his lips together tightly, and when Marion first appeared on screen, dressed as a waitress, Arthur breathed in sharply. Miles paused the movie in case Arthur needed something.

"There she is," Arthur said, his voice choked. "There's my darling." He turned to look at Iris. "How did you find this?" 

"Someone just donated a few boxes of short films from their own private collection to the Library of Congress," Iris said. "We'd talked to someone there already, and they rang us as soon as they realized they had what we were looking for." 

Arthur rested one hand on Iris's arm and the other hand on Miles's shoulder, giving each a squeeze. "Thank you." He looked at the screen, then at each of them in turn. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's see it!" 

Iris divided her time between watching the film and watching Arthur, and saw that Miles was doing the same thing. Arthur was a highly appreciative audience, chuckling at every quip and watching everything Marion said and did with close, devoted attention. The story itself was about Marion and Patsy Kelly's characters planning to leave their humdrum waitressing jobs for the glamour of Hollywood and running into various obstacles along the way. Both women were fast and funny in the best screwball comedy tradition, with Marion taking one elaborate pratfall that stunned Iris. 

"I see why Hal Roach wanted to try her out," Miles said after the movie was over. "She was good!" 

Arthur nodded. "She was. I'd forgotten how good." 

"I can't believe she took that fall without hurting herself," Iris said.

"She told me Patsy helped with that," Arthur said. "She'd been in vaudeville a while and knew how to fall. Can I ask a favor?" 

"Of course," Iris said. 

"Could we watch it again?" Arthur asked. "It's been so long." 

"Not only can we watch it again, you can take it with you when you leave," Miles said. 

"I couldn't do that," Arthur said. "You went to all this trouble." 

"Please," Iris said. "We want you to have it." 

Arthur didn't say anything for a long while, but he nodded. "Thank you." 

"Okay," Miles said. " _On Their Way,_ round two." 

Arthur enjoyed it just as much the second time. So did Iris. 


End file.
